Wild Cards

“Bitches Brew. Is that a joke?”

“Hey, it’s real. It’s considered a landmark.”

“Jade Blossom!” One of the reporters, a young Latina, held up a hand. “What do you think of your new friend?”

Jade Blossom turned to Cesar, aware that all the reporters were listening. “You’re from Seattle? Whoever heard of Seattle jazz? What instrument do you play?”

“The teacher told me you’d get a full report,” said Cesar.

“I didn’t waste my time on it.”

“I play piano.” He looked up as though hoping for approval.

Jade Blossom sipped her margarita, thinking, He’s just the kind of loser I expected.

Another reporter, a young guy, shouted from behind a camera crew, “Jade Blossom, what do you think of Bambi Coldwater?”

“I’m as human as anybody, only more so,” Jade Blossom shot back. “Ask the bitch what she thinks of that.”

Cesar gave a goofy laugh.

She sighed. “You have a girlfriend, Cesar?”

Cesar hid behind his iced tea with a couple of big swallows. “Are you married?”

“Me? Ha!”

“I guess you can play the field a lot, huh? Have lots of relationships?”

“I don’t do relationships. I do what I want.”

“Okay, so, what do you want?”

“Looking for a turn-on, are you? A peek behind the curtain?” She leaned back, extending her long legs in front of her for the benefit of all the cameras. “I wanted Bruce Lee, for one. He was very fit and flexible even at the age of fifty, some years back. I’m taller, so when we stood together, his face was right at boob level.” She giggled, remembering. “I wanted Golden Boy and he liked me right back. Same with Arnold Schwarzenegger—I heard he liked to grope, so when I had an early small part in one of his movies, I went to the density of a car tire and turned my butt toward him. Gave him a surprise!”

“You know a lot of celebrities, huh?” Cesar asked.

She sobered slightly. “I admired Bill Cosby, but when we met for drinks one night after American Hero, my margarita tasted funny, so I made excuses and got the hell out. The bastard sent word around Hollywood and stalled my career in low-budget shit for years.” She savored the bitter memories and used them to stoke her inner fire.

“Old dudes,” said Cesar. “Every single one of those guys is old enough to be your dad.”

“They aren’t the only ones, asshole. I had any guy I wanted.”

Some of the reporters and camera crews were turning away. They had all seen this chatter in the tabloids and online long ago. Off to one side, Ethan talked into his phone, then let his shoulders sag as he lowered it. As Jade Blossom expected, she had little to worry about from him. She sipped her margarita and turned to Cesar. “What about that girlfriend? You don’t have one, do you? She’d be way jealous right now.”

Cesar slammed down his glass, sloshing iced tea onto the table. “I play piano, bitch, and I’m good at it! I’m human, so I’m better than you!”

At the sound of his raised voice, the reporters and camera crews turned back, calling out questions and recording again.

Jade Blossom was startled but she liked his response. “Somebody spike your iced tea? What’s in that stuff?”

“I’m damn good on the ivories and I wrote a damn good essay! Girls don’t like me, that’s all.”

Jade Blossom jumped on his weak spot. “Why don’t girls like you?”

“I dunno.” He drank more iced tea, the fire seemingly gone.

“Hey, Jade Blossom!” The Latina reporter was smirking. “You going to give him tips on getting girls? After all, he’s got you for the day!” All the newspeople laughed.

Jade Blossom yanked Cesar’s cold glass out of his hand. She poured a little of her margarita into it and slid it back to him. “You’re not ugly. You need to work out, tubby.”

“I hate my life.”

“Think that makes you special?”

“My mom’s really strict. But I like band. And I’m kinda shy.” He drank some of his spiked iced tea. “I hate my life and I hate you.”

Jade Blossom laughed. She understood hate. “Is it because of my ace?”

Cesar leaned forward and threw down a long swig of his drink. “Mom came down with our band, you know, to be a chaperone? Outside the hotel, she stopped to talk to the Purity Baptist Church people. I listened and you know what? They make some sense. Mom says so, too. You’re not human. You’re different now.”

“If you can live in a world with dogs and cats, you can live with people like me.”

He pounded his glass down on the table again. “Live with that Marissa Simpson? Are you kidding me?”

“Who’s she? Some girl you’ve got the hots for?”

“She’s a goddamn joker in Jokertown Mob!”

Jade Blossom had him hooked like a fish. “Does she play skin flute?”

Cesar stared at her, maybe not certain he had heard correctly. “She plays piano, only her hands are all weird.”

“Weird how?”

“Her hands are all rectangular. She’s hard and white, like piano keys. Her whole body looks like a robot made out of ivory, hard edges and angles and hinges on her joints.”

“An exoskeleton,” said Jade Blossom.

“And her face! Like a robot, all white and stiff, too.”

Jade Blossom sighed. “If you hate wild cards, why did you write that essay to meet me?”

“That was before. Now I know better!” He chugged the rest of his spiked iced tea, then clanked the glass down, gave her a triumphant grin, and stomped out.

Jade Blossom judged it to be a good exit for a high school kid. The reporters and news crews followed him out. She had a moment alone, if you didn’t count Elaine waiting for her off to one side like the toady she was and Ethan staring at the floor with his hands shoved into his pants pockets, willing himself to be anywhere but here.

Jade Blossom liked Cesar. Very few people tried to get the best of her—except that bitch Bubbles. Jade Blossom was not normally reflective, but Cesar’s responses reminded her of when she had been a six-foot-tall, skinny fourteen-year-old girl named Haley Mok, who was ridiculed and ostracized by her peers. When her card turned, she learned to hurt people before they hurt her. She had maxed out her density and smashed through doors and walls at school, destroying desks, terrifying her peers and the adults alike. Then she knew she could speak her mind. Those memories still amused her.